60. I don't really mind one way or the other

I think that polls are not likely to increase problems on this forum, which have quite other causes, but are not likely to cure them either.

As someone who dropped by the forum 5 years ago, planning to post on one thread and then leave - and then stayed and stayed- I think the problems are different.

(1) It is intrinsically a contentious topic and there'd be no way of avoiding conflict altogether.

(2) There is, perhaps inevitably, sometimes a very partisan debating style. I don't mean simply that people are very pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel, but in my perception there is sometimes an attitude of 'scoring points for the team': i.e. responding to an argument not with 'You are wrong because of fact X', but with something akin to 'You didn't/ wouldn't complain when/if someone of your team did that!' or even with anticipation of future potential misdeeds by the other side: 'Now I'll be called antisemitic! or 'No one will bother to criticize these atrocities because they weren't committed by Israel!'

(3) There are not very clear limits as to what sources can be used. My own view is that right-wing or highly nationalistic Middle Eastern sources - Arutz Sheva, Electronic Intifada, PressTV - should be usable as information on the views on the ground, but not treated as objective news sources or as corroboration for a poster's opinion; and that right-wing Europaean or American sources should not be used at all.

(4) Not a reason for the conflict, but a limitation on the forum: there are very few forum members who are actually Israeli or Palestinian!